ENS HARRY E. HOWELL, USN
Lucky Bag Yearbook
From the 1938 Lucky Bag:
HARRY EDWARD HOWELL
Track 2, 1; N*; N Club; Ring Dance Committee; Lieutenant (j.g.).
Loss
From naval aviation historian Richard Leonard via email on February 9, 2018:
Was killed in a flight accident on 24 March 1941. He was in VF-42 assigned to USS Ranger and operating out of NAS Chambers Field, Norfolk. VF-42 had just been re-designated from VS-41 and was formerly a SBU-4 dive bomber squadron and had only been operating F4Fs since the beginning of the month, though transition training started in February. While engaged in section tactics practice, the flotation gear in the wings of his F4F-3 inflated causing him to lose control of the aircraft. Though the devices deflated as he climbed to exert pressure on them, his plane spun to the right and crashed near Chick’s Beach in Princess Anne County, just to the east of Lynnhaven Inlet. This accident was the impetus for removal and discontinuation of the floatation gear, a concept that was a holdover from the biplane era.
- NAS Pensacola attached for HTA flight training, 6/24/1940;
- NAS Pensacola designated NA # 6979, 12/16/1940;
- VF-42 NAS Norfolk KIFA F4F-3 crash off Chick’s Beach, Princess Anne, VA
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Harry attended Kiskiminetas school, Carnegie Tech and the University of Pittsburgh. His father Harry was chief clerk to the superintendent of passenger transportation of the Pennsylvania Railroad. His mother was Fannie, sister Margaret, and brother Lt. John George Howell (‘30.)
He was married in September 1940 in Pittsburgh.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Navy Directories & Officer Registers
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together, or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
July 1938
January 1939
October 1939
June 1940
November 1940
Harry is one of 72 members of the Class of 1938 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
